


Best Laid Plans

by oceanofdarkness



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: 50 First Hamburger Dates, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-27
Updated: 2012-12-27
Packaged: 2017-11-22 15:42:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 963
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/611448
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/oceanofdarkness/pseuds/oceanofdarkness
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rumplestiltskin thinks he might have better luck finishing a date with takeout in the library.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Best Laid Plans

**Author's Note:**

> Entry for December 26, 2012

Rumplestiltskin is taking no chances this time. He is determined to actually finish a date with Belle… or at least manage to get more than a bite or two of a hamburger. Surely, that isn’t too much to ask?

Since it is Friday evening and Granny’s is sure to be crowded - and crowded means more opportunities for unwelcome interruption - he had suggested bringing take out to the library. Belle had agreed that perhaps a different setting might improve their chances of actually getting through a date, and so it was decided.

Rumplestiltskin has to congratulate himself. This date is going very well indeed. Instead of sitting across from each other in a booth at Granny’s, he and Belle are side by side at a table in the back of the main room of the library. He is in shirtsleeves, Belle has toed off her shoes, and they have takeout containers spread in front of them with hamburgers that are already half eaten without any interference from the good citizens of Storybrooke. The evening has been relaxed and comfortable. He’s told her about what little progress he has made with his efforts to cross the town line, though they mainly consist of ruling out a couple of promising theories. Belle has told him about her progress with reorganizing the library and is currently talking about the book she’s just finished reading. Yes, this is definitely going well. Perhaps they should try takeout at his pawn shop next time.

He takes another bite of his hamburger and looks up to find that Belle has gone silent and is looking at him with a curious tilt of her head. He tries to think what he might have done to upset her, but she doesn’t seem distressed, merely distracted.

“What is it, Sweetheart?”

“Hmmm…? Oh!” She gives a quick shake of her head and then offers him a sheepish smile. “It’s nothing really…” She leans over and brings her face close to his. “You just have a little bit of ketchup right here…” and with that, she leans in and he feels her tongue at the corner of his mouth.

“Belle,” he groans, reaching up to twist a stray curl around his finger. “You don’t play fair.”

She pulls back just far enough to meet his eyes, a mischievous twinkle in her lovely blue ones. “Well, if I’m going to play with the Dark One, I should have some kind of an advantage.” She grins at him, looking up from beneath her lashes, and then suddenly pulls back, straightening at the sound of an awkward little cough.

The pair look up to find Leroy, the dwarf known as Grumpy, shuffling from one foot to the other.

“I’m sorry to interrupt,” he mutters, and Rumplestiltskin quite literally bites his tongue to keep from snapping out a harsh response. “I guess you’re closed then?”

“Well yes,” Belle begins, a lovely blush coloring her cheeks as she glances to her dinner companion with an apologetic shrug, “but if there’s something you really need, I suppose I could take a minute to help you find it.” 

The dwarf brightens. “I’d really appreciate it!”

Rumplestiltskin can do little more than roll his eyes and offer up a pained sigh. At least they managed to eat something this time.

“What do you need?” Belle asks, slipping into her shoes and getting up from her place at the table.

“I’m looking for a book on auto repair,” he tells her. “Sister Astrid says they’re having some trouble with the van at the convent, and I told her I’d check out the carburetor, see if there’s anything I can do.”

Belle arches her eyebrows with a knowing smile. “Ah, Sister Astrid.” She offers the dwarf a conspiratorial grin. “Well, no wonder it can’t wait.”

“Why not just call on Mr. Tillman?” Rumplestiltskin suggests. “Surely, he’s better equipped…”

Grumpy cuts him off. “Tillman’s out camping with his kids this weekend.”

“Ah…” He is about to go on when his little librarian stops him with a hand on his shoulder.

“In that case, you have no choice but to step in,” she says firmly. “Can’t have Sister Astrid getting stranded, now. Can we?”

The dwarf grins and Rumple could swear he’s blushing.

“Why do I get the feeling I’m missing a piece of some puzzle?” he asks, looking from his love to their latest interruption.

“It has to do with True Love,” Belle informs him, trying her best to sound terribly serious but unable to hide a grin.

“Well, in that case…” Rumplestiltskin allows, spreading his hands in a gesture of surrender.

“Really!?” Grumpy blurts out, staring at the sorcerer as though he’s suddenly grown a third eye.

Rumplestiltskin rolls his eyes. “Only the blackest soul would interfere with True Love, Dearie.”

Belle beams at him, but her expression falls after a moment.

“What’s wrong, Sweetheart?”

“Well,” she murmurs, her eyes pleading with him to understand, “That section is one that I haven’t gotten around to straightening out yet, so this might take awhile.”

“It’s alright,” he assures her. “I’ll wait.”

His lovely little Belle leans down to place a soft kiss on his cheek before scurrying off toward a distant corner of her library, calling to the lovesick dwarf over her shoulder. “I think it should be over this way…”

Leroy starts to follow, then turns back to Rumplestiltskin.

“You know, if I’d been able to convince the landlord to forgive that month’s rent back at Miner’s Day, I might not need to work so hard to impress her now by fixing a chokespring on a van that’s stalling out on a cold start.” 

And then he’s gone after Belle with an evil grin while Rumplestiltskin stares after them, muttering about the troublesome nature of fairies.

 


End file.
